Spain

Corruption scandal leaves government on the brink

www.socialistworld.net, 24/02/2013 website of the committee for a workers' international, CWI

What strategy to do away with rotten government and system?

Danny Byrne, CWI

Imagine a Western European country in which 56% of young people are
unemployed; where over 6 million are out of work; where 400,000 families
have been evicted from their homes in the last 4 years; where almost one
third of children are in poverty. Its political rulers have, in the last
years, implemented one of the biggest austerity programmes in history,
sentencing millions more to poverty and destitution, with more, even
more brutal anti-social policies to come. Now imagine that these same
rulers – many of them millionaires – including the President, are found
to have been milking millions in corrupt payments, from both private
donations and public money over the last decade. However, as with many
previously “unthinkable” positions thrown up by the current capitalist
crisis and chaos, this “imaginary” situation is a reality, now being
played out in Spain.

The impact of these developments on an already explosive situation
should not be underestimated. The events of the last short period
testify to this. On Monday 18 February, thousands of Iberia workers
staging strike action against sackings blocked up Madrid’s Barajas
airport, provoking police charges and brutality. Following a spate of
suicides provoked by house evictions – 4 suicides in only 48 hours –
fire-fighters in the regions of Madrid, Galicia, Catalunya and the
Canary islands have refused to collaborate in evictions. Madrid’s
fire-fighters’ union released a statement refusing to act as “puppets of
the banks, and of their servants in government”. Tens of thousands then
took to the streets on a day of massive demonstrations calling for halt
to all evictions. The pathetic weakness of the Rajoy government
following the latest scandal is a key new element in this situation of
growing struggle and radicalisation from below.

Firefighters: "We save people, not the banks"

Bárcenas scandal

At the end of January, the ‘El Pais’ newspaper published documents,
allegedly detailed secret hand-written accounts covering the last 11
years (up til 2008), written by ex-PP treasurer, Luis Bárcenas. He has
been under the spotlight following investigations into a previous
corruption scandal - the ‘Gurtel’ case. This revealed he held a Swiss
bank account, with a stash totalling over €22 million, proceeds of years
of tax-free looting. However, these secret papers contained even juicier
information. This has thrown the government into its deepest crisis yet,
dissolving its already disappearing legitimacy in the eyes of the vast
majority of people.

They detailed the paying out of regular sums of cash derived from
(mostly illegal) big business donations to the party, to the top leaders
of the PP, including current President, Mariano Rajoy. They indicate
that over this time, Rajoy received a total of over €300,000 in payments
of this character, including extra one-off sums, marked for spending on
“suits”! They also detail payments of a similar scale to a wide range of
PP leaders, including PP “number 2”, Maria Dolores De Cospedal, and
payments to Health Minister, Ana Mato, which included entries marked
“Luis Vitton”, for fashion accessories! The origins of these donations,
primarily from big construction companies, but also from bosses in other
sectors, are unsurprising. These are Spanish big bosses, understandably
keen to bankroll the party that has since brought them gifts such as
anti-worker labour reforms, and lucrative contracts in privatised
hospitals and health centres among many others.

Moreover, the repertoire of policies implemented by this party over the
last year alone, includes a direct gift to fraudsters and tax-dodgers
alike: a fiscal amnesty allowing wealthy tax-dodgers to repatriate their
winnings, avoiding the full whack of backdated tax payments. The fact
that this outrageous policy was used by Bárcenas himself, to
“repatriate” over €11 million last year, is an additional deeply
embarrassing detail, which helps to cast light on this elaborate con job.

The response of Rajoy and his government so far, has been contemptuous,
based on outright denial, and offers to provide “proof” which insult the
intelligence of the Spanish people. The “proof” which Rajoy promises to
present goes no further than an offer to publish copies of his tax
returns – as if these would include any details of tax free corrupt cash
payments! However, as the saga goes on, revelation after revelation
gives further credence to the allegations. Handwriting analysis experts
commissioned by El Pais, El Mundo and other establishment newspapers
have confirmed that the papers were written by Bárcenas. PP MPs and key
figures, including the President of the Spanish Senate, have entries in
the papers. At a subsequent hearing of the anti-corruption tribunal, a
former PP MP, Jorge Trias, swore under oath that the copy of the
accounts in circulation was the same as a copy previously shown to him
by the ex-treasurer himself.

So far, the government’s response to the allegations has consisted of a
bullish attempt to close ranks, deny all knowledge, and eulogise the
Presidents trustworthiness and “clean hands record”. However, given the
damning indictment of the PP that these allegations represent, a layer
of leaders crying foul, in an opportunistic attempt to save their
political fortunes, is inevitable. Already, the outlines of a serious
internal crisis are being drawn.

Internal splits and divisions in regime

Back in 2004, when Rajoy won the PP leadership, his main rival was
Madrid PP leader, Esperanza Aguirre. She is a fiery politician,
generally seen as to Rajoy’s right appealing to the PP’s more
conservative base, with her more provocative rhetoric against the trade
unions, left and Spain’s nationalities. Until recently, it seemed like
Rajoy had been able to rid himself of her irritating influence. But like
a flu which hits you on the morning when you least need it, the Bárcenas
scandal has brought her back onto the scene. Sharply critical of the
party leadership’s handling of the crisis, she offered herself to lead a
democratic “regeneration”, along with calls for the dismissal of Health
Minister, Mato. While at present this mini-rebellion seems confined to
Madrid, as the saga unfolds and pressure mounts from all sides (not
least from the workers and youth), Rajoy could become increasingly
isolated.

One of the features of the current situation, of profound crisis and
instability, and popular rage and ferment, is for divisions to emerge
within the regime itself. This could link up with and exacerbate the
already open breaches which have opened up, on a national/regional
level, within the PP as well as within the state forces (army, police,
judiciary, etc), which have already been a factor in the government’s
underlying weakness.

While this process is accentuated by given issues and events, such as
the current scandal, it is also a general feature of periods of deep
crisis. Often in such periods the ruling class has no clear project to
overcome the crisis and restore growth and stability, around which it
can rally its forces and social base. What better description of the
situation facing the Spanish government and capitalist class, on
collision course with the majority in society and wedded to a suicidal
austerity agenda which pushes the economy deeper into depression. Such a
situation, combined with massive pressure building up from below, and
the development of new struggles of the workers and youth, with some
revolutionary features and traditions, is bound to strike fear into the
hearts of the ruling class. It naturally provokes squabbling and splits.
These fears, as well as the massive ferment and growing determination to
struggle among workers and youth, show that events are ultimately moving
in a revolutionary direction, as the objective situation cries out for
it. However, in order for this to be anything more than abstract
analysis, a struggle must be waged to establish the subjective
conditions for a revolution – a powerful movement with the strategy and
political programme necessary for a struggle to the end. The absence of
these conditions explain an infinite amount about the present situation.

Will the government fall?

Despite the government’s rapid loss of legitimacy, the initial response
of the ruling class to this crisis will be to try at all costs to
maintain the current government in place, for fear of the even greater
instability which any alternative arrangement would bring. In
parliamentary terms, the PP enjoys a large majority, and capitalism’s
second reliable state-wide force, the ex-social democratic PSOE, is
going through its own deep crisis of support and legitimacy – on 23-24%
in polls - with no immediate prospect of winning elections. A problem
for the ruling class in any attempt to restore legitimacy to the
capitalist government is that the PP’s crisis of legitimacy extends to
all pillars of the establishment! There is not one prominent capitalist
institution or party which enjoys the confidence of the broad mass of
Spaniards, Basques, Catalans etc.

This applies to all pillars of the much-touted new Spanish “democracy”
following the “Transition” from Francoism. The Monarchy is deep in its
own scandals, following the case of Urgandarin, the King’s son in law,
who made millions for himself and his friends through stealing the
proceeds of charitable institutions, and the king’s own embarrassing
revelations of elephant-hunting trips at the taxpayer’s expense. Weeks
before the current scandal exploded, a Metroscopia opinion poll
published in El Pais, showed that a stunning 96% of people judged the
level of corruption among the political class as a whole to be “very
high”. Even the model of state, the “autonomies” which after the
transition to democracy were hailed as the once-and-for-all solution to
the historic national question, has lost its legitimacy, with only 18%
favouring the maintenance of the current model in some polls.

PSOE, along with right-wing nationalist parties in Catalunya and the
Basque country, are also beset by regular corruption scandals. Indeed, a
similar crisis of corrupt payments from big bosses to the PSOE party was
key to the bringing down of the Felipe Gonzalez government in the 1990s.
The list goes on and on, and has been a feature of Spanish politics for
many decades, especially during the construction boom of the last
decade. However, while a boom can quite nicely fatten up a rotten
corrupt ruling class, a crisis can just as nicely expose it for what it
is.

Towards a “technocrat” regime or national unity government?

In this context, any alternative to Rajoy based on early elections would
bring deep uncertainty for the ruling class and capitalism. The
capitalist class, in Spain and internationally, is conscious that the
years to come contain many barriers to be bulldozed and battles to be
waged, not least between the central Spanish government and the
nationalities, especially Catalunya. And for such a period, they want a
reliable government which can best resist the mass pressure and
opposition to it. This entails a government with a hefty majority, and
at least a modicum of legitimacy among a section of the working and
middle classes. At the moment, Rajoy does not provide them with this.
However, in the absence of an alternative they can have confidence in,
they can hang onto him for a period.

This being said, the bourgeois and its representatives will already have
extensively thought and planned out a possible ‘plan B’ scenario. Press
reports already indicate that around the PP, the options of Rajoy’s
resignation to be replaced by his deputy, and even of early elections,
have been contemplated. A possible, even a likely, perspective is that
if the pressure on Rajoy does not recede, in an attempt to prevent new
risky elections, the question of a national unity government, or “grand
national pact” – an idea with strong resonance and history in Spain
following the 1970s’ “Moncloa pact”, comes back onto the agenda. In
Italy and Greece, we have already seen the imposition of such
governments, headed by technocrat figures. Under the current conditions,
events in Spain seem also to be moving in this direction, although any
technocrat or national unity government would obviously in no way bring
stability or a period of “social peace”.

Organise from below to force a movement capable of toppling government

Any such solution should meet with mass organised resistance by the
workers and social movements, with a determined struggle demanding the
fall of the government and new elections. As Socialismo Revolucionario
(CWI in Spain) has pointed out, with the current weakness of the PP
government, a workers’ movement with a serious strategy and a leadership
worthy of the name could bring it down through a new calendar of
mobilisations. After three powerful 24 hour general strike over the last
2 years, such a plan of mobilisations would have to represent an
intensification, with a 48 hour general strike as the next step in a
struggle capable of casting the PP government aside.

However, in the current situation, many in Spain will ask themselves,
somewhat despairingly – “why has such a movement not developed, despite
the extent of the government’s bankruptcy?”. The answer to this question
mostly lies in the state of the leadership of the traditional workers’
movement and its main forces – the trade unions. The leaders of the main
two trade unions, CCOO and UGT, seem to have no intention of taking a
lead in organising such a struggle. Their recent declarations have at
best been limited to a demand for Rajoy’s personal resignation. Even
then, put the condition of the need to “prove” the veracity of the
allegations. Millions of workers, unemployed, young people and
pensioners will need no judicial convictions before making their minds
up as to the rotten corrupt, anti-worker nature of this government of
thieves. The union leaders have made no significant attempt to mobilise
the collective power of the working class since the magnificent general
strike of 14 November, when over 10 million struck and 4 million took to
the streets.

This is despite a growing militancy from below, as shown in the massive
and combative action being taken by workers in different sectors across
the state since the general strike. “New” and militant forms of struggle
have emerged. The tactic of workplace occupations has come back on the
agenda, following the beginning of the marvellous movement of the “white
tide” against health cuts and pivatisation in Madrid, in which over 20
hospitals have been partially occupied by workers, and already some
minor partial victories have been won. Indefinite strikes, rarely seen
until now, are also abounding – refuse workers in Sevilla, Granada,
Cadiz and other cities, along with numerous companies in the private
sector. These developments clearly show that the dynamic force in the
workers’ movement, the force which is setting the real pace of struggle
and giving an expression of the mood in society, is the working class,
and trade union rank and file, in contrast with the approach of the top
layers.

The current passive position of the leaders is a continuation of the
policy they have implemented since the beginning of the crisis. They
have acted only when under unbearable pressure, to organise general
strikes – which have invariably been strong and successful mobilisations
– only to proceed to immediately demobilise, rather than opting for
intensification to impose alternatives to the government’s austerity.
Spain’s trade union bureaucracy seems to be profoundly stuck in
pre-crisis mode, when the economic boom partially allowed for a “social
partnership” approach, of deals with the bosses and government to
protect social gains while safeguarding “social peace”. However, this
period is over. In the context of capitalism’s deep crisis, no deals or
pacts can paper over class divisions in society, and weakness and
passivity from the workers movement encourages an even more savage
aggression from capital. The union leaders are also further domesticated
by the movement’s dependence on state funding, which diminishes further
their desire not to “rock the boat”.

But this approach, and their current refusal to act decisively, will
ultimately be unable to stop struggle developing. In May 2011, a similar
conjuncture, with the crisis developing at lightning speed and a trade
union leadership unwilling to give the growing anger an expression, led
to the explosion of the Indignados’ 15M movement. This movement has
since somewhat diminished and become dispersed, including into positive
developments such as the growing massively popular movement of direct
action against house evictions. This has been partially due to the
weaknesses of organisation and political programme (or lack thereof)
which the CWI and SR outlined since the movement’s birth.

However, in a similar way, the current situation could see the explosion
of a movement which goes over the heads of the trade union leaders.
Already, the 3-day national students’ strike in the first week of
February was accompanied by massive demonstrations which took up the
demand for the resignation of the government. These and protests on
specific issues – including evictions – can give an expression of the
generalised discontent and rage in society. However, in order to force
this government and its policies from the scene of history, a massive
organised and sustained movement, bringing together all individual
struggles in general strike action, is necessary. For this, and to
overcome the roadblock of the union bureaucracy, the building,
strengthening and coordination of democratic mechanisms of control from
below – assemblies and committees of action in workplaces, universities,
schools and neighbourhoods – is a key demand of the hour. Such bodies,
organised democratically with the election of delegates – and the right
to recall them – are a key ingredient of the type of movement necessary

The left and the struggle for a workers’ government

One of the main reasons why the capitalist class is so afraid of the
spectre of new elections, is their fear of how the masses will vote! In
the immediate aftermath of the Rajoy corruption revelations, the
Financial Times despaired: “If elections were to take place now, Spain
could face Greek-style political fragmentation, with the two main
parties reduced to the diminished size of Greece’s conservative ND and…
PASOK (which, like the PP, also had a recently won absolute majority).”
This fear, also articulated by Rajoy himself, among the elite is
entirely justified. Spain’s “bipartidismo” (two party system) has
functioned since the fall of Franco as a key stabilising factor for
capitalism, guaranteeing its control over government, whether under one
colour or another. However, this is another institution cast asunder by
the crisis.

Recent opinion polls show a colossal fall for the PP, over 20% down on
its November 2011 election victory. But PSOE, capitalism’s second
reliable state-wide party, has not reaped the benefits, with polls
showing that they too have lost ground, even compared to the historic
hammering they received at the last elections. The main force which has
benefited has in fact been the United Left (IU), along with new forces
of the nationalist left (Bildu in the Basque country and CUP in
Catalunya). IN recent polls, the IU is between 15 and 16%, up from below
7% in 2011 elections and less than 4% in 2008. In the recent Catalan
elections, the vote for the left (ICV/IU and the pro-independence,
anti-capitalist CUP) reached a combined second place in the Catalan
capital, Barcelona. This process is the best expression of the
radicalisation, and consequent shift to the left, that public
consciousness has undergone during the crisis, and especially in the
last 12 months.

However, a decisive question is whether these changes in support will
remain a question of mere electoral intention, or whether they – along
with the explosive struggles to come – can be translated into a real
movement capable of radically changing the situation for the better.
There remains much work to be done if the answer is to be in the
positive. However, the growth of the left, on the correct basis, can
quickly put it in a position to challenge for a majority. The prospect
of an alternative government of the anti-austerity left would be a key
catalyzing factor in the situation in Spain, and give a new hope and
confidence to workers’ and social movements increasingly determined to
fight to stop the social carnage.

In order for such a prospect to become viable, various political and
organisational conclusions have to be drawn. Firstly, we are beginning
from a situation in which the hegemony of PSOE as default “opposition”
party is under threat, following decades of pro-capitalist policies,
including that which begun the current austerity offensive between 2008
and 2011. This provides the real left with a golden opportunity to seal
the fate of this ex-workers party – to the dustbin of history. However,
a disastrous way to go about it would be to prop up PSOE by making
political pacts and coalitions with it, which unfortunately is a
strategy defended by the majority of the IU leadership. In Andalucia, we
see the fruits of such a policy being borne – a government with IU
ministers implementing the biggest austerity programme in the region’s
history. Such a strategy is incapable of assuring that IU develops as
the political voice of a society turning away from the parties of the
system. Worse still would be the impact of a repetition of the Andalucia
experience on a state-wide level, which would be posed from some
quarters in the context of new elections. International experience,
especially the implosion of the Italian PRC (Party of Communist
Refoundation) following its participation in the anti-worker Prodi
government in the 1990s, must be learned from to avoid such a disastrous
scenario.

At the IU’s national convention in January, growing opposition from
within the coalition itself was on display. A motion criticising the
policies implemented by the Andalucian coalition, and calling for the
withdrawal of the IU from the coalition, was passed at one of the
convention’s sessions. In Andalucia itself, as a result of a magnificent
campaign of opposition from below – led by Sanchez Gordillo among others
- , 3 of the IU’s regional MPs refused to back the government’s latest
cuts packages. Other successful motions passed, including support for
the imposition of a “workers’ wage” salary policy for IU elected
representatives, indicate the growing polarisation between left and
right within.

If an organised left opposition existed on a state-wide level, following
the example of the “IU from below” platform in Andalucia, these
movements within could much more effectively be reflected in changes to
how the IU and its leadership operate on a state-wide level. Given the
momentum behind the IU at this stage, with events pushing it further and
further towards a position as contender for power, the debates within
and around it on questions of policy, strategy and a revolutionary
socialist alternative to capitalism, are of crucial importance. An
organised opposition within the IU, defending a policy of political
independence from the capitalist parties, an opposition to all cuts,
rejection of the payment of the debt and for socialist policies of
massive public investment financed by massive wealth taxes, and the
nationalisation of the banks and key sectors of the economy to break
with capitalism and austerity, would be a powerful new factor in Spanish
political life.

However, although a necessary central pole in any challenge to the power
of capitalism in Spain, in the new situation thrown up by the crisis, IU
is no longer the only show in town. The national question, pushed to the
forefront by the crisis, especially in the historic Catalan and Basque
national communities, has shaken up the political scene generally. The
deep connection between rising pro-independence sentiments and the deep
opposition to the austerity policies of the PP central government, has
seen an important space open up on the left. The space has been
partially but rapidly filled by new formations, combining
pro-independence positions with opposition to austerity and an
anti-capitalist profile. In Catalunya, the CUP stood for the first time
in November’s elections, and from nothing won 3 MPs, with opiion polls
only one month later giving it twice that amount. In the Basque country,
Bildu, a new formation in the “abertzale” (pro-independence left)
tradition made shockwaves in elections in October, emerging as the
second party.

The breakthroughs for these forces is partially linked to the IU
leadership’s insufficient position on the national question – formal
recognition of the right to self-determination, but no concrete support
for moves in this direction. Indeed, with over 80% of Catalans in favour
of a referendum on self-determination – a basic expression of this right
– IU leader Cayo Lara has come out against it, on the premise that
Catalunya’s future is something for all of Spain to decide! This
approach must be corrected – in line with the best revolutionary
traditions of the Spanish workers’ movement – in favour of the defence
of this right in both word and deed.

A key task today is for the building of united fronts, on a regional,
national and state-wide basis, of the genuine left, including the IU,
and various left nationalist and regional formations, such as Bildu, CUP
etc. The potential fruits of such a strategy are being shown in Galicia,
where the new AGE alliance (IU plus left-wing nationalists) had exploded
onto the scene. In the latest poll, it is tied neck and neck with PSOE
on about 20%. Moreover, when the youth is taken into account, results
are even more astounding. Among those under 35, support for AGE is
higher than that of both the PP and PSOE combined! Such a united front
should be formed on a state-wide level, on the basis of an united
platform for a left government.

Such a government would have to reject the payment of the debt to the
banksters at home and abroad, and refuse austerity impositions from the
capitalist European institutions. Then, on the basis of mass struggle
and democratic rank and file organisation among workers, youth, the
unemployed and pensioners, a workers’ government, based on public
ownership and democratic control the economy and a socialist plan of
production could be fought for. The earth-shaking impact that such a
struggle would have internationally, especially in fellow peripheral
European countries such as Greece and Portugal, would clearly show the
outline of a potential new union of the European peoples, in struggle
against devastation – the ultimate basis for the alternative of a free
and voluntary socialist federation of Europe.

Embedded in the situation in Spain is the need for revolution, for the
imposition of a socialist solution, the only lasting way to remove the
logjam of history. However, in the absence of a movement with the
necessary tools to win, a more dangerous situation for the working class
could develop, with national fragmentation, and the rise of reactionary
forces which prey on the desperation of ever-bigger social layers. The
potential outline of such developments is already being drawn, with the
rise in reactionary Spanish or ‘Castillian’ nationalism, reminiscent of
the Franco era, and the growth of forces like the UPyD, which express
this, alongside populist opposition to corruption, and the power of the
trade union movement etc. This being said, the momentum of the situation
is still with the working class, and the dominant shift in attitudes
remains towards the left. There is still the basis for Marxists –
despite the complications of a given conjuncture - to be confident of
the forward march of the coming Spanish revolution.

Ireland: “Dogs of war” unleashed in Jobstown
16/02/2015, Cillian Gillespie and Councillor Mick Barry, Socialist Party (CWI in
Ireland):The Gardai have simultaneously targeted the community of Jobstown, the
anti-water charges movement and the Anti-Austerity Alliance

ANALYSIS

Greece showdown
26/02/2015, Article to be published in the March issue of Socialism Today (magazine
of the Socialist Party, CWI in England and Wales):Niall Mulholland interviewed NICOS ANASTASIADES, of Xekinima (CWI
Greece), just as Syriza leaders agreed a four-month bail-out extension
with the EU.

Europe: Eurozone time-bomb
25/02/2015, Lynn Walsh, article from Socialism Today (magazine of the Socialist
Party of England and Wales):Mired in recession, the eurozone is haunted by the spectre of stagnation